1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to medical diagnostic and treatment devices and, more specifically, to chiropractic/medical diagnostic and treatment devices for use in discovering and correcting dysfunction of vertebrae mechanics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various problems occur with vertebrae or joints in the spines of human beings. A primary cause of such vertebrae or joint dysfunction involves the fibrous ligaments which maintain the joints of the vertebrae in a bone-to-bone relationship.
Long term of accommodation to a disarticulation of the joint caused by a variety of external forces and other problems results in a stretching of certain fibers of the ligaments surrounding the joint accompanied by a contraction or compression of the opposed ligaments of the same joint transversely about the rotational axis of the joint. This causes not only discomfort but could also lead to potentially dangerous adaptation to such joint degeneration, with consequential patient problems relating to the spine. In order to overcome these problems, the contracted ligamentous fibers must be re-stretched to provide a more proper alignment of the joints articular facets of the vertebrae.
Manual manipulation by a trained physician has long been employed by applying an indirect force to two contiguous segments of a joint in the vertebrae to re-stretch the contracted ligaments. Such manual techniques are fraught with hazard due to the lack of both control and repeatability and commonly provide inadequate results or excessive damage to the tissue surrounding many joints of the vertebrae. The inherent danger of manual manipulation of the vertebrae is based on the possible lack of both the skill and experience of the physician.
Also, there is no currently available piece of analytic equipment which can provide information to the physician of the amount of dysfunction of the joint and/or the effectiveness of the application of any treatment to the dysfunctioning joint. This would be extremely useful to the physician insofar as enabling him or her to adopt the best treatment for a particular patient without causing further damage to the force absorbing tissues surrounding the vertebrae joints of the patient.
Thus, it would be desireable to provide a diagnostic and treatment device for particular use with a dysfunctioning vertebrae which overcomes the problems of previously employed methods used to treat dysfunctioning vertebrae. It would also be desirable to provide a vertebrae diagnostic and treatment device which is easily used and which indicates the amount of dysfunctioning of a particular joint in the vertebrae. It would also be desirable to provide a vertebrae treatment device in which a dysfunctioning joint of the vertebrae of a patient can be treated by applying a particular amount of force at a desired location on the vertebrae.